(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

By Jennifer LaFleur, ProPublica, Feb. 11, 2013

After eight years of tightened access to government records under the Bush administration, open-government advocates were hopeful when Barack Obama promised greater transparency.

Four years later, did the president keep his promise?

"It's a mixed bag," said Patrice McDermott, executive director of OpenTheGovernment.org, a consortium of right-to-know groups. "I think they've made progress, but a whole lot more remains to be done."

The Obama administration set the bar high. In his first inaugural address, Obama said that "those of us who manage the public's dollars" will "do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government."

The next day, the president issued two memos. In one on the Freedom of Information Act, he wrote that FOIA "should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails."

A second memo addressed transparency: "My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government." And that "openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in government."

But transparency was not defined in detail, said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). "People were left to imagine whatever they wanted to be the content of those statements. Inevitably, disappointment soon followed."

Next came more memos and directives, including a memo from Attorney General Eric Holder encouraging federal agencies to release discretionary information and a White House directive outlining an open-government to-do list for agencies.

Among the assigned tasks:

• Make data available online
• Create an open-government website
• Create a FOIA point person within the agency
• Devise a plan on how the agency will become transparent

In early 2010, ProPublica tracked how well agencies followed up. Some agencies missed key deadlines. Others did not complete all tasks.

Two months ago, the National Security Archive found that "66 of 99 federal agencies" never updated their FOIA regulations even though Holder ordered them to make changes in a March 19, 2009, memorandum.

"It takes somebody beating up on the chief FOIA officer and the head of the agency to make sure the message is being heeded all through the agency, " McDermott said. "And they haven't done that."

But all has not been dark and cloudy. The secrecy veil is beginning to lift in some areas.

Last year, the White House released its visitor logs, and Obama signed legislation that provided greater protection for government whistleblowers.

Citizens can get more information about government spending than they could have previously through websites such as Recovery.gov and USASpending.gov.

The administration also created Data.gov as a repository of federal data. A December 2009 White House memo directed agencies to make "high-value" data sets available on the site. Although Data.gov was criticized for its lack of usability and the selection of data, it now has more than 350,000 data sets from agencies.

Another website, FOIA.gov, tracks data about how agencies respond to FOIA requests for records and provides tools to help citizens make requests and track for information.

"We know more today than ever before about intelligence spending," Aftergood said, citing bright spots. "And we know more today than before about the size of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal." (Estimates put the U.S. stockpile at just more than 5,000 in 2012, according to an FAS report.)

Some basics also have changed. Many agencies employ simple, yet helpful practices such as communicating with FOIA requesters and giving them ways to check the status of their requests. Some agencies have posted contact information for their FOIA offices and other personnel on their websites.

Still, many requesters say they continue to face delays and costly processing fees. Although government data show that agency FOIA backlogs are significantly lower than in 2008, the figures for 2011 show an increase from the two prior years. An analysis by Bloomberg News last fall found that 19 out of 20 cabinet-level agencies failed to properly fulfill FOIA requests.

"Other areas are like duck feet paddling beneath the surface," McDermott said. "You may not see them, but they are moving."

In fiscal year 2011, agencies processed 8 percent more FOIA requests even though the number of incoming requests went up. And now, more than 40 years since the passage of FOIA, government employees who process requests have an actual job category — "government information specialist."

Obama's second inaugural address contained no mention of transparency, however, and no memos or directives have called for a more open government. That leaves some to wonder if the commitment to transparency continues.

According to White House spokesman Eric Schultz, it does. "While creating a more open government requires sustained effort," he said, "our continued efforts seek to promote accountability, provide people with useful information and harness the dispersed knowledge of the American people."

"Reducing secrecy and improving transparency are still compelling ideas that are good for reducing costs, improving efficiency and engaging the public in a constructive way," Aftergood said. "Those of us who do advocacy in that area shouldn't be disappointed. We should get to work."

More transparency coverage:

• FOIA Eyes Only: How Buried Statutes Are Keeping Information Secret • Government Could Hide Existence of Records under FOIA Rule Proposal

[Photo Credit: Reuters]

By Richard Tofel, ProPublica, Jan. 21, 2013

As we did four years ago, we asked Richard Tofel, ProPublica's president and author of a book on President Kennedy's inaugural address, to provide instant analysis of today's speech. Here are his thoughts:

In 2009, in the flush of his first election, Barack Obama declared in his inaugural address that, "What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply." Today, perhaps chastened by the trials of governing and the difficulty of gaining election a second time, he did not so much acknowledge that the cynics of 2009 had been right as devote himself to trying, one more time, to move the ground beneath them.

The critical portion of the address seemed to be this: "Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time – but it does require us to act in our time…. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate." Whether such a call, even with the president's present strength and confidence, will shift the ground will be the great question of the next period in our politics and history.

The speech centered on the two fundamental American texts, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Obama quoted the heart of Jefferson's Declaration verbatim, and then turned repeatedly, as his organizing rhetorical device, to the opening words of the Constitution: "We, the People." By the speech's end, seeking a call to action and perhaps a counterweight to the polarization of Washington, "we, the people" became "you and I, as citizens."

Along the way, in addition to drawing on the words of Jefferson and Martin Luther King, Jr., Obama managed to reference Lincoln four times in two paragraphs, adverting to the Gettysburg Address ("government of, and by, and for the people"), Lincoln's second inaugural ("blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword"), the "House Divided" speech ("no union… could survive half-slave and half-free") and Lincoln's second message to Congress ("made ourselves anew"). The one source not quoted in the speech, in a striking departure from inaugural tradition, seems to have been the Bible.

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A new anthem and music video celebrating President Obama's inclusive message of moving the country forward together as Americans during his second term, produced by the Executive Producer behind the iconic 2008 "Yes We Can" music video with will.i.am.

Featuring: Ne-Yo, Herbie Hancock, Johnny Rzeznik, Delta Rae, Natasha Bedingfield
Director: Graham Henman
Producer: Fred Goldring

Your open thread begins below.

Take a behind the scenes look at the construction of the floats for the 2013 Inaugural Parade.

Hat tip to TPM for the Youtube video.

CNN video footage of celebrations across both the U.S. and elsewhere across the globe as word of President Barack Obama's re-election spreads.

According to CNN projections, Obama surpassed the decisive 270-vote threshold in the Electoral College with victory in Ohio. The win gave him 274 electoral votes to 201 for Romney, based on CNN's projections based on unofficial returns.

Joyful supporters danced and cheered at Obama's victory party in Chicago, while the mood at Romney's election-night gathering in Boston was somber.

President Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night with an appeal for another four years to continue with the platform of "change" he was elected on in 2008. "If you reject the notion that this nation’s promise is reserved for the few, your voice must be heard in this election," Obama said.

“On every issue, the choice you face won’t be just between two candidates or two parties."

“It will be a choice between two different paths for America."

“A choice between two fundamentally different visions for the future."

“I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy. I never have. You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth. And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades. It will require common effort, shared responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one. And by the way – those of us who carry on his party’s legacy should remember that not every problem can be remedied with another government program or dictate from Washington."

“But know this, America: Our problems can be solved. Our challenges can be met. The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place. And I’m asking you to choose that future. I’m asking you to rally around a set of goals for your country – goals in manufacturing, energy, education, national security, and the deficit; a real, achievable plan that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity, and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation. That’s what we can do in the next four years, and that’s why I’m running for a second term as President of the United States.”

Obama presented a clear set of achievable goals on manufacturing, energy, education, national security, and the deficit – an achievable plan that will create jobs, expand opportunity, and ensure an economy built to last.

Obama's speech may not have been the "best" speech of the convention this week, but I think there is a message there for every one of us, and the message is that he has heard our voices. If you think he hasn't heard the cries of Occupy Wall Street, listen to this speech. Goals centered around jobs, education, college tuition, and energy. The message of "Hope" and "Change" are still there, but they've been tempered by four years of the reality of money and politics in Washington, just as all of our dreams have been.

The President himself has acknowledged that there is much more to be done, and has accepted the nomination again, and stands ready to help us face our challenges.

Personally, I'd rather not hand it all over to Mitt Romney in mid-struggle and wait to see what's left of our nation when he's finished with it.

A full transcript of Obama's speech follows below the fold.

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This may be the spookiest political ad ever: Chuck Norris, along with his wife Gena, have offered a dire warning to America, claiming that Americans face "socialism," (*Gasp!*) or something worse," and "1,000 years of darkness" if President Obama is re-elected for a second term in November.

In the Youtube video above, Norris and his wife warn of a "growing concern" that the America we know can be "lost forever" if Obama is re-elected.

“If we look to history, our great country and freedom are under attack,” Norris says. “We’re at a tipping point and, quite possibly, our country as we know it may be lost forever if we don’t change the course in which our country is headed.”

Gena Norris then cites the statistic that in 2008 more than 30 million Evangelical Christians stayed home on Voting Day and Obama won. *Gasp!*

She then quotes the late President Ronald Reagan, "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into 1,000 years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.”

Oh, Chuck and Gena? The name of that speech you quoted, "A Time for Choosing," also known as "The Speech," was presented during the 1964 U.S. presidential election campaign by future president Ronald Reagan on behalf of Republican candidate Barry Goldwater.

Goldwater lost.The world did not end, or even plunge into 1,000 years of darkness.

Drama queens.